Play Windows Games on Linux

Linux Journal Gadget Guy Shawn Powers walks you through how to play Windows games on Linux.

---

Closed Caption:

hi I'm Sean i have i've been using
windows for a little over two weeks and
no matter what i do if i want to play a
game it just seems like my only option
I'm here can I don't know what to do i
think maybe it's time to start
experimenting with wine
it turns out wine kid make you forget
all about Windows but that's not the
kind of why we're going to talk about
today today we're talking about
we're talking about an application that
allows you to run Windows application
specifically windows games inside your
linux box this is linux running behind
me and you can see it's counter-strike
that's plain the program we're gonna
look like it's called wine now wine wine
is not an emulator that's pretty much
what what wine stands for the initials
but i can look at wine itself we're
going to look at two commercial
applications based on wine technology
what is called sadita or siga or cydia
i'm not sure exactly how to say it and
the other one is called CX games from
the people that brought us crossover
office that was kind of a the new kid on
the block but anyway we're gonna look at
them both see what they how different
they are what they offer what they don't
offer pricing licensing and ultimately
how they work
I'm so let's check it out right now
first we're going to look at cydia now
here's adiga just click on the game and
then you click the play button to play
but to install a program this is the
dialog box there's a huge list of
pre-configured games that it knows how
to properly install how to set itself up
just a huge list of games which is
really nice and you can either mount a
hard disk in America RCB image or or you
know you can insert a disc but that's
how you do it to start a game and you
click on here click play but that's the
dig in a nutshell
now the next part you want to go look at
is crossover games now this is the
actual installation dialogue on these
are the things that already have
installed the whole bunch of stuff from
microsoft and steam the process looks
like this you click on the install
software brings up this box you'll see a
much smaller list of supported games out
of the box now again this is a smaller
list but you'll see down here this
install other game you can click on
there and you know try your luck at
installing another game but this is what
crossover games looks like this is from
CodeWeavers in the end a large part of
the decision comes down to your
preference
now the people and trans gaming that
bring us adiga there's kind of a history
of people being upset with them for how
they're managing the the licensing it is
cheaper to get started
fifteen dollars can get you three months
worth of subscription fees after that
you can you get that keep the game but
you don't get any more updates or
support however if you keep the
subscription for a year it cost like
fifty five dollars that i need a break
and then if you look at sea x games
I'm you give you know for the 3999 you
get a full year support full year of
updates like I said the CX games as a
new kid on the block just came out so it
doesn't support quite as many games but
they're both using wine technology
against adiga is a little bit different
because they forked a while ago and
they're not actually contributing to the
open-source wine project whereas the
largest contributor to the open-source
wine project right now is CodeWeavers
the people that juicy x games so you
know if you're really passionate about
open source software open source
development people contributing back to
to that you know CodeWeavers they're
really doing a better job of
contributing back to the wine project
but you know the city has been around a
lot longer maybe they have a track
record maybe the track record is
something that's going to steer you away
from them and i'll let your research
that on your own now I'm not normally a
fan of you know trial software sharing
software I just don't like the crippled
type installation but see X Games will
give you seven days a fully functional
gaining bliss which is great especially
in a situation like this where you're
not sure if it's going to work a lot of
the games especially the ones not listed
are hit or miss so get that seven-day
trial from CX games from CodeWeavers com
install it see if the game works really
well if so maybe it's something you want
to purchase if not you know you can try
to dig up but you got a foot the bill
for fifteen bucks for three months of
membership right away either way between
the two you can play a lot of commercial
games and linux without the need to go
back to windows so that's what I'm doing
I'm playing my windows games inside
linux and i'm really enjoying it i hope
you enjoyed this review and i will see
you next time
now I know what you're thinking Shawn
why in the world would i pay for CX
games are sadita when I could get the
wine software for free i mean it's open
source you can download it right now and
don't pay anything
well you're absolutely right and if
you're a little bit daring not afraid to
get your hands dirty and not afraid to
tweak your system
check out linux journal . com i'll put
in the story attached to this video some
links to some other programs that can
help you up programs that don't cost
anything things that are free like like
the wine doors program or play on linux
these things will help you can fit your
wine so that you can play the commercial
windows applications the games that you
want to play without the need for
sadhika or c x games at all now I won't
lie there a little bit tougher to
configure CX games to diga work out of
the box without any problems plus you
get the support but a lot of linux users
don't mind tweaking things around on
their own
I know that's what i did and i didn't
have a problem getting even steam to
work took a little longer but in the end
it was worth it
so check out linux journal com will have
some links there so you can follow you
can probably get up and going without
the need for any of the software i
mentioned today